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Blessed To Be a Blessing
As I’m writing this, I have a kitchen full of Hurricane Irma escapees processing tomatoes in my kitchen. This includes Grandma, Poppy, my brother, and his wife. My brother’s three children are picking more tomatoes and bringing them back to the house. While I’m not happy for the reason they’re here (Hurricane Irma), I am…
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Flexibility is Key to a Busy Mom’s Sanity
I’m a naturally organized person. Which is helpful, because the more complex my life becomes, the more important it is to stay organized if I want to be efficient, get all my work done, and stay sane and happy. But you don’t have to be a naturally organized person to successfully manage a busy household.…
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Benefits of Cooking with Cast Iron
We do a lot of cooking around here and have lots of pots, pans, skillets, and other cooking supplies. If you take a look at our cookware, you’ll notice we use predominantly stainless steel and cast iron. Whenever possible, I’ve always tried to avoid Teflon coated or non-stick cookware. Sure, it’s convenient, but how can…
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It’s Your Choice
Many of you know that my oldest daughter, Brett, just got engaged. The other night we were discussing how important it is that you marry a person accepting him exactly as he is. You don’t get married expecting your spouse to change. Now, we all know that change is going to happen. But too many engaged…
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Systems are Key to Increased Productivity
I got my Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. People often think that the ‘systems’ refers to computer systems, but in fact it refers to large-scale systems. I put my degree to good use working in Corporate America for 3 years before Brett was born. When I left the work force…
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You Don’t Have to Know It All to Homeschool
When people find out that I homeschool my eight children, I get a lot of different responses. One of the more common ones is, “Wow, you must be smart. I could never homeschool my child in x.” Insert “science”, “math”, “grammar” or whatever “weakness” the person perceives in themself for that x. But that’s part…
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Parenting is Not Black and White
Some of the best parenting advice I’ve ever received came from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People* by Steven Covey. I’m not sure he wrote the book with parents in mind, but habit number one (Be proactive) and habit number two (Begin with the end in mind) are highly effective habits of good parenting.…
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Helping Your Child Catch Up
We normally take our beach vacation in the beginning of September. We do this because when most kids start back at school, the rental rates for beach houses drop dramatically. Consequently, most of the children we meet at the beach are fairly young and my children find it very easy to make friends with younger…
